Many of you may have known that I have recently relocated to Munich, Germany both to study and to work. I have been offered a scholarship with a german firm called Rohde & Schwarz which specialised in telecommunication signal processing, multimedia recording technology, weaponry and intelligent service encryption. I have then spent almost a year picking up german, from almost zero to the european framework of level C1 which I just recently completed a few weeks ago. This post was supposed to go online at least a month ago but I had been procrastinating and did a few excursions over the last few weekends thus always ran short of time to complete and proofread. And today roughly after 3 months here in Munich I am happy that you are now reading this.

I spent a lot of time growing up in Southeast Asia namely in both Malaysia and Singapore although I had also briefly lived in Japan, Australia and Bali. These countries have pretty much moulded me of who I am today, be it my personal values or cultural competence. I listed ten observations I have experienced so far in Germany, in Munich particularly. They are some stereotypes about the Germans as well as some fun facts which I find worth mentioning, especially when comparing to Asian culture.

1. Punctuality

You have heard that - Germans are punctual. It is not a myth it is true. And when they say punctual they really mean it. You are allowed to give yourself a maximum allowance of 5 minutes both before and after the agreed time for a meeting or an appointment. You will look stupid if you appeared too early to realise no one was there to entertain you. If you came too late you could easily offend the Germans. There were a few instances when I met some German folks for lunch but was late by a few minutes and was apparently being mocked about it. Although I knew it was probably just an intended pun but that put a lot of emphasis on how important the value of punctuality is in Germany. 7.08am means 7.08am. Set that damn reminder! 

2. Food

Well if you asked me to summarise the food in one word - boring. I have to admit the food culture in Germany is definitely not as sophisticated as what we have in Asia. Crowned as one of the must eat in Munich - pork knuckle may be something to drool over but it is nothing more than roasted knuckle complete mostly with potato dumpling and sauerkraut (german version of pickled cabbage) It was fun the first time to be served such a huge knuckle in front of you and it definitely went well with cold beer. But people with high cholesterol or those with health complications are better off staying clear! It is definitely savoury with that crunchy bite of the roasted skin and a mouth full of juicy meat oozing out as you chew but in today's eating clean context it simply does not fit. 

3. Work-life balance

In Singapore there is a saying "Leave and come back home while it is still dark" which literally means many leave before sunrise and reach home after sundown. As of a report in 2015 Singapore remains no 1 in the ranking of longest working hours in work at a staggering of 44 hours per week on average. And surprisingly Germans work the least according to a study released by OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). How does Germany remain as an industrial leader and perhaps the de facto economy powerhouse in the whole of Europe while working so less? Not forgetting the average 24 paid vacation days a year to boot. They are highly efficient and productive at work. Working hours mean working hours. Browsing reddits, facebooking or even taking unlimited coffee breaks are absolutely unaccepted and not at all to be noticed. Perhaps this article can explain it better. 

4. Diurnal (x nocturnal)


Germans do not sleep late even on weekend. Both my german language teachers (the one in Goethe Institut Singapore and the one here in Munich) sent me email very early in the morning even on Sunday. Makes me wonder what time does a German usually go to bed? Probably link to the previous point above. Productivity and efficiency are definitely highly associated with getting work done first thing in the morning and not keep snuggling in the quilt. Early bird gets the worm eh?

5. Language

German vs Bayrisch

I thought learning German would make my life so much easier in Germany. But hang on there just like English there are countless variations of accents, local slangs and dialects. And in Munich, the well-known capital for the state of Bavaria, where the local dialect - Bayrisch is almost like another language itself. You hear it on the street and is very commonly spoken between co-workers. And of course some lecturers in the uni speak that too which is kind of challenging for someone like me to understand. Even with proper German I do occasionally have problems understanding as I am still learning and it is my forth tongue, my brain capacity is actually maxing out. Servus!

6. Beer

Heard of beer garden (Biergarten)? Yea probably something unique to Bavaria or south of Germany, it is like a garden where everyone drinks beer outdoor if the weather permitted. You are drinking a pint? Sorry they drink a "Maß" here which is a humongous glass for a litre. And beer is more often cheaper than sodas like Coke or Fanta in a restaurant or eateries. Did I forget to mention that in Aldi (a local supermarket chain like Walmart in the States or FairPrice in Singapore) you can get a pint of beer as low as €0.29. Now hanker for a pint? Better be chilled. More to German beer culture here.

7. Fork and knife

8. Coffee... meh...

I am not trying to brag how good our coffee is back home but hey. I am an amateur coffee connoisseur and a cup of good brew is very important first thing in the morning. But in most establishments like restaurants or coffee-to-go, coffee is like brown coloured water at its best. There was once I accompanied a friend of mine to buy coffee at a local supermarket. He intuitively picked up the "mild" beans and I was like *insert meh face*. And on the shelf there were definitely more mild choices than the stark ones. In the end he had to brew more beans to render a stronger taste of my liking. So yeah our coffee in Asia still rules. And I heard the one in Italy is pretty good too.

9. Germans are cold
Yes and no. A very typical stereotype about Germans. They are depicted as cold and more often do not like to keep a personal contact with most people, even harder for a foreigner like me. But my experience thus far has been pretty positive. But may also due to the fact that I am living in Munich, where a large portion of the population is made up of international expats. People here are more likely to be more open. I have been bombarded with messages from a lot of Germans I met elsewhere during the first few weeks I got here, proposing me the possible date for a meet-up. I had also been invited on several occasions to house dinner, parties, swimming and sunbathing along the Isar river-beach and even excursions out in the wild.

10. #Engineering #FirstWorldPains
Probably irrelevant to those who are not engineers. In Germany numbers are expressed differently. In metric context decimal point is expressed with a dot but here in Germany you will see comma instead. It is so confusing when I first doing some scientific calculation!